If white people truly mean well, they must make an unflinching commitment to the tough, unpleasant and honest work of authentic change. The momentum to remove Confederate memorials … Some places heeded that call — the Confederate battle flag flying over the SC state capitol came down; monuments in Baltimore were contextualized and later removed — but most ignored it. Confederate monuments are not teaching tools, they are monuments … Worse, others responded by erecting new Confederate monuments. Removed California Why does the removal of Confederate monuments remain in public conversation? Even here in Houston, students at Rice University are asking for the statue of William Marsh Rice — the university’s founder and a slave owner — to be removed. That’s where Confederate monuments fall short. We see this in the higher levels of inequality between Blacks and whites in places where slavery was more concentrated. Nearly 300 monuments and statues are in Georgia, Virginia, or North Carolina. 6100 Main St. MS-208 The monuments go up because, without Washington, there likely would not have been an American nation. The … Our history matters, and the way that we remember the Confederacy is an important part of that history. Monumental changes require removing monuments to the Confederacy. So, here we are, again. Lisa Desjardins is a correspondent for PBS NewsHour, where she covers news from the U.S. Capitol while also traveling across the country to report on how decisions in Washington affect people where they live and work. ... Make … COVID-19 and Cities, Demographics, Education, Governance, Urban Disparity, COVID-19 and Cities, Education, Health, Urban Disparity, COVID-19 and Cities, Demographics, Housing, Urban Disparity, Education, Governance, Health, Urban Disparity. But we want to close with a cautionary reminder: Ultimately, the issue of monuments and names is a symbolic one. In Centreville, Alabama, the United Daughters of the Confederacy described their “Confederate heroes” using the following text: “These were men who Parents of Black/white biracial children are least likely to report their child’s race as “Black and white” on the census, and are more likely to opt for “Black alone” in states where the history of anti-miscegenation law is stronger. We chose to let the moment pass. Op-Ed: California removes almost all of its Confederacy … Some demand the Confederate monuments remain. This article was produced by Make It Right, a project of the Independent Media Institute.. From frequent recurrences of police brutality and the widening gaps in access to opportunity, to the coronavirus’ outsized impact on communities of color, the invasive disease of racism has spread throughout the American system. Since the death of George Floyd, the United States has been in nothing short of a reckoning with systemic racism — a reckoning that has, in part, focused on how we remember our past. have preserved for us The statue is featured prominently on the Rice campus. “As regards the erection of such a monument as is contemplated,” Lee wrote of an 1866 proposal, “my conviction is, that however grateful it would be to the feelings of the South, the attempt in the present condition of the Country, would have the effect of retarding, instead of accelerating its accomplishment; [and] of continuing, if not adding to, the difficulties under which the Southern people labour.”. For now, the removal has been blocked by an injunction issued in one of several lawsuits. Confederate monuments are just that, monuments, tributes to those who fought for the Confederacy. Removing a monument or renaming a building are steps toward using symbols that better reflect shared values of equity and inclusion. The statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was hauled down by protesters in Richmond, Va., the old capital of the slave South, within hours of Trump embracing the symbols of the Confederacy. Virginia State Troopers stand under a statue of Robert E. Lee before the white supremacists rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017. He might just want to hide the history, to move on, rather than face these issues.”, Left: White supremacists, neo-Nazis and others have protested the removal of Confederate monuments. their lives, “You think he’d come down in the camp that would say ‘remove the monuments,’” Horn posited. s academic quad. But Lee himself never wanted such monuments built. Lee died in 1870, just five years after the Civil War ended, contributing to his rise as a romantic symbol of the “lost cause” for some white southerners. To lavish praise on those who fought for the Confederacy and leave prominent monuments honoring their cause is to deny the brutal reality of the people who were enslaved. To lavish praise on those who fought for the Confederacy and leave prominent monuments honoring their cause is to deny the brutal reality of the people who were enslaved. It is clear that action is needed to address our public landscape. In his writings, Lee cited multiple reasons for opposing such monuments, questioning the cost of a potential Stonewall Jackson monument, for example. a priceless heritage of Honor.”, “It is a duty we owe to Monuments are not just hunks of rock. “I don’t think that means he would have felt good about the people who fought for the Confederacy being completely forgotten,” Cobb added. Yet in Richmond, which has no shortage of public memorials to defenders of white supremacy, there has been comparatively little outcry. In all, more than 30 monuments and symbols to the Confederacy have been dedicated or rededicated since 2000, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/robert-e-lee-opposed-confederate-monuments, “It’s often forgotten that Lee himself, after the Civil War, opposed monuments, specifically Confederate war monuments.”, The shifting history of Confederate monuments, WATCH: Protesters pull down Confederate statue in North Carolina, After Charlottesville rally, these U.S. cities say they’ll take down their Confederate statues. Subscribe to ‘Here's the Deal,’ our politics newsletter. “All I think that can now be done,” he wrote in 1866, “is … to protect the graves [and] mark the last resting places of those who have fallen…”. Monuments to the Confederacy must come down. Finally, if that were not enough, there is even evidence that Confederate monuments are related to higher levels of Black-white inequality. She is a former Kinder Institute fellow. They are symbols of who we — as a society — are. A statue of Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army, is seen in the Crypt of the Capitol in Washington. Even Lee, as cruel and brutal as we now know him to have been, knew there should be no monuments to him, or to anyone of the Confederacy which had been defeated on the field of battle. White supremacists, neo-Nazis and others have made monuments to the Confederate commanding general a flashpoint — at times marching to keep them standing. Many municipalities in the United States have removed monuments and memorials on public property dedicated to the Confederate States of America (CSA), and some, such as Silent Sam in North Carolina, have been torn down by protestors. We cannot afford to do that again. Numerous other Southern communities, large and small, are reconsidering the future of the Southern soldiers in marble and bronze that stand watch over their town squares and courthouses. He swore allegiance to the Union and publicly decried southern separatism, whether militant or symbolic. In a 2016 report, the Southern Poverty Law Center said that the country’s more than 700 monuments were part of roughly 1,500 symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces. our children shall know Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Before the war, Lee opposed secession, but once his native Virginia voted to leave the Union he declared he was honor-bound to fight for the Confederacy. Lee himself was conflicted about the core issues of his day. Lisa Desjardins. In fact, they celebrate rebellion. Opinion Confederate Monuments Slavery America said goodbye and good riddance this month to yet another monument glorifying the Confederacy and lying about history on public grounds. Thank you. There are many sides to this debate, and a corresponding list of actions to take. Why talk about this at all? We see this again when thinking more broadly about the ways we understand race and identity. Five years ago, in the wake of the racially motivated mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, that left eight African American parishioners dead, we saw similar calls to action. Heather O’Connell is a professor of sociology at Louisiana State University. Is it appropriate for cities/states to publicly display monuments (flags, statues, etc.) © 1996 - 2021 NewsHour Productions LLC. Leaving them where they stand suggests that they — and the history they represent — are important. Removing them and doing nothing more masks the underlying systemic racism that supported their initial placement on public property. Along Richmond, VA's manicured Monument Avenue, statues of Confederate leaders stand among pristine trees and a grassy mall.As of June 10, there is one less Confederate statue for passersby to see. Robert E. Lee, who led the Army of Northern Virginia through the Civil War, opposed the construction of monuments commemorating the vanquished Confederacy. But he personally described slavery as a “moral and political evil” that should end. Mailing Address: But the Confederate general Robert E. Lee himself never wanted such monuments … But underlying it all was one rationale: That the war had ended, and the South needed to move on and avoid more upheaval. At the root of the problem is racism. the virtues and become Jenifer Bratter is an associate professor of sociology at Rice University and director of the Kinder Institute’s Program for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Culture. From Charlottesville, Va., to New Orleans, La., the removal of Confederate statues from public spaces and the debates over their removal are making national news. Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour. Forthcoming research by Christina Simko, David Cunningham and Nicole Fox suggests that places that accomplish this are in a better position to maintain meaningful conversations about inequality, even after the monument is removed. The Sons of Confederate Veterans and, in a quieter way, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the group that erected many of the monuments that are now the target of the biggest removal campaign in history, are pushing back by building new statues, buying land to house torn-down memorials, and airing radio and online ads seeking public support for their cause. Like the some 680 other monuments still scattered across the Confederate and border states, those in New Orleans were meant to reaffirm the nobility and legitimacy of the “Lost Cause” of Southern independence and justify efforts to roll back the challenges to white supremacy posed by emancipation and so-called Radical Reconstruction. Your observations should be typed, double-spaced with correct spelling and proper sentence structure, and approximately three-four pages in length. Confederate monuments are tied to a divisive history. Anti-miscegenation laws legalized racial boundaries, but were abolished in 1967. Americans once again are calling for and debating the removal of Confederate monuments. even to the heroism of death Answer the following question using at least THREE SOURCES. In “Prophetic City,” Stephen Klineberg shows us where change has taken Houston and where it’s likely to take the nation. An op-ed in the New Orleans Times-Picayune last week used the video to argue: “In the kindest reading, ‘Gone With the Wind’ is romanticized fiction. Subscribe to the Urban Edge to be notified when new stories are published. California once had far more Confederate monuments and place names than any state outside the South. 6100 Main Street, Suite 305 posterity to see that Rice University students are petitioning to have the statue of school founder William Marsh Rice removed from campus. by the simple manhood of A final, complementary option to consider is the addition of a new monument. Returning to a familiar and difficult conversation. Recent evidence shows that placing monuments within a museum designed to educate the public on their racist legacy allows the audience to view them as a signal of the work that still needs to be done. If you would like to order copies of the print editions, visit upress.ufl.edu. The United Daughters of the Confederacy were instrumental in … Why or Why Not? No amount of words can alter the signal that is sent by these monuments being positioned in a place of prominence. A compromise proposes adding plaques to contextualize the monuments and explain their origins. “But you have to ask why [he would remove them]. We are witnessing the removal and, in some cases, outright toppling of statues commemorating the Confederacy. Officials with Gettysburg National Military Park said they have no plans to remove any of the park's 1,300-plus monuments, markers or plaques. For now, the removal has been blocked by an injunction issued in one of several lawsuits. Academics and writers vigorously debate his sentiments and strengths, but historians seem to agree on Lee’s views about memorials. But if we remove them outright, we run the risk of both forgetting the role they played and why their removal was called for in the first place. to the Confederacy? by their sublime courage Inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Lisa Desjardins Erecting new statues or replacing names on buildings serves to expand who we honor and how we see our history. Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials is an ongoing process in the United States since the 1960s. The retired Confederate leader, a West Point graduate, was influenced by his knowledge of history. Photo by REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman. They make no distinction between Confederate and Union, abolitionist and pro-slavery, 15th-century figures and 20th. Please check your inbox to confirm. Follow the Kinder Institute on social media. Photo by REUTERS/Joshua Roberts. Like the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C., an apt memorial for the Confederacy is a scar, not an heroic statue. As Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center puts it: “The Daughters have done more with monuments, textbooks, and other propaganda to bolster the image of the Confederacy … As the deaths of black men and women resulting from police violence continues in America, protestors in cities large and small are calling for the end of systemic inequalities and police brutality. No one puts a monument up to Washington or Jefferson to promote slavery. “He said he was not interested in any monuments to him or – as I recollect – to the Confederacy,” explained James Cobb, history professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, who has written about Lee’s rise as an icon. Would Lee have opposed his own monument today? Leaving them in place only honors the Confederacy’s cause: To preserve the status quo and continue enslaving Black Americans. It was left standing as a museum, to teach people. Rather than merely coinciding with Jim Crow laws or pushback against civil rights progress, the act of erecting monuments to the Confederacy was another plank in the platform to promote white supremacy and rewrite history. Historians are clear on the fact that the Civil War was not motivated by states’ rights. More than merely testimonies to the past, the division and inequality that slavery began remains steadfastly part of our day-to-day. However, this option ignores the importance of placement. Ralph Northam ordered the removal of the monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond. An experimental study examining voting behavior further demonstrates that there are real consequences to keeping Confederate symbols in public spaces: people who were primed — or subconsciously saw — a Confederate battle flag reported being less willing to vote for Barack Obama and higher levels of anti-Black attitudes. “Lee believed countries that erased visible signs of civil war recovered from conflicts quicker,” Horn said. It was motivated by a desire to preserve the status quo and continue enslaving Black Americans. Here, we take a look at findings from the Kinder Institute’s State of Housing report in the context of Settegast, a historically Black neighborhood in northeast Houston. “I think it wiser,” the retired military leader wrote about a proposed Gettysburg memorial in 1869, “…not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.”, WATCH:The shifting history of Confederate monuments. Raw emotions and a sharp political divide were revealed by an unsuccessful attempt in the 2019 session to make it far more difficult to remove monuments to the Confederacy … Confederate leader, a West Point graduate, was influenced by his of. That we remember the Confederacy is an ongoing process in the Crypt of the Capitol in Washington and. Evil ” that should end consider is the past and it has no bearing on.. 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